Army wife waits over 4 months for $3,000 refund

A fence job left a local army wife out of thousands of dollars, and after four months, she finally got her money back.

The contractor took a good chunk of change just to start the job, and after endless promises and no job, he did the right thing and gave the woman her money back. But first, homeowner Sara Sheets heard all sorts of excuses when it came to her fence job that Blue Water Fence out of Fayetteville was supposed to do.

Sheets paid the owner, Steve Mann, $3,000 in March to start the job.

"He said it would take about two weeks to get the materials, and then he'd be able to start it after," said Sheets.

Two weeks, turned into more than four months of waiting without a fence and just more excuses.

"He called and said can I get you your money back? I said I'll believe it when I see it," recapped Sheets.

When ABC11 talked to Mann, he blamed the delays on personal issues, but continued to assure he would get the job done. That never happened, so Mann promised a full refund of $3,000, but then said that he was declaring bankruptcy.

Sheets did not buy the excuses and filed charges at the magistrate's office, which got Mann's attention. After he found out there was a warrant out for his arrest, Mann told Sheets he would get her money back.

Sheets did get her $3,000 refund and dropped the charges.

"It happened to work out, I don't know where he got the money from, I just hope it wasn't someone else," said Sheets.

The best advice is to research any company before handing money over. A quick search of Mann's company on the Better Business Bureau shows similar complaints to Sheets' as he does have an F rating.